The writer believed Levitsky’s and Ziblatt’s views should be dismissed because they hold professorships at Harvard and are therefore liberal elites. We should listen instead to the real truth offered by the gun- and Bible-toting letter writer, a proud self-proclaimed former ditch-digger. Does the writer think Harvard professorships are just given away to anyone?

It is no accident that their argument regarding the risk of an authoritarian in the White House is a cogent one based on a thorough knowledge of history and government: Trump could be a danger to our democracy, as they outline.

Their expertise and the validity of their argument cannot be voided by the writer’s generic right-wing whine that they are “elite” just because their highly informed view challenges his desired truth.

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